Mac App Store Hit 10,000 Apps Last Week – How Many Have You Bought?

The Mac App Store reached a milestone last week – 10,000 apps available on the store, after about a year and a quarter since its launch. Compared to the iOS app stores – with over 500,000 iPhone apps and 200,000 iPad apps available – this doesn’t seem a strikingly impressive number.

I think a lot of that is clearly due to the fact that Mac app publishers had long-established distribution methods for their apps before the Mac App Store (MAS) came along and not all of them have come into the Mac App Store whereas there has always been only one authorized distribution point for iOS apps. The higher pricing levels of Mac apps probably plays a big part here too. It’s interesting that Lion is listed as the most popular and highest grossing app, even though I wouldn’t generally count an operating system as an app.

Seeing the news that the MAS had hit the 10,000 apps mark made me think a little on how many apps I had bought. Interestingly, when I initially guessed I had bought maybe 12-15 or so – but it turns out I’ve actually bought right around 35 apps (not counting Lion). It also made me think about whether I go to the Mac App Store first when looking for a Mac app – and the answer is not usually. Usually I do a web search first and if there’s a download available at a developer’s site I don ‘t generally even think about checking on Mac App Store availability for the app.

How many Mac App Store apps have you bought? Do you tend to look first in the MAS or first on the web when looking for a Mac app?

The issue is it is actually really hard to build good apps for OSX. iLifeTouch has the most apps on the Mac App Store and as a developer I must say the switch from IOS to OSX is very tough. That is the main reason we only have 10 000 apps on the store. Developing apps for OSX is very frustrating and sometimes we struggle to a point where we give up for a month then try again later.